Illustrations & Language in Children's Literature

Children's literature or books as defined by Wynne-Davies (p. 403) represent "A variety of books of various genres specifically written to appeal to, educate, inform, and entertain younger, non-adult readers." In reading, children like adults often fulfill a series of needs that include a need for liberation from the restraints and confines of everyday life, a need for beauty and order, a need for healthy change, a need for information and knowledge about the world and its people, and a need to identify the self with themes, ideas and issues larger and more expansive than the self. As such, children's literature and its illustration have an enormous impact on shaping child developing, including views, values, social behavior, and other aspects of growth. In a review of various children's books, this analysis will demonstrate that illustrations and language are inextricable in children's stories, in ways that can often lead to negative views from a sociological perspective.

If we look at the interdependent connection between illustrations and text and its impact on social development, we need only explore various depictions of minorities or, specifically, African Americans in children's books through time. Accuracy and validity of text are no more nor no less important than accuracy and validity of illustrations in shaping attitudes among children. In her book Shadow and Substance, Rudine Sims (p. 49) uses the term "culturally c

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ontinued into the 1970s, a decade in which "mainstream publishers and book critics" became more and more conscious of the need to pursue publication of "pluralistic" stories. Arbuthnot (et al., p. 734) notes that white America during this era became increasingly aware of the activism of minority groups and, consequently, publishers and educators alike began to provide children of all ethnic groups with a "greater variety of stories, histories, and other materials with multicultural themes." The interdependency of text and illustration is related to the fact that both text and illustration in children's books tend to reinforce the dominating views, attitudes, or beliefs of mainstream society. This has been limiting in the past not only to minorities but also due to gender. However, as publishers, book critics, and educators recognized the need for greater representation in text and illustration of positive images of African Americans so have they recognized the need for a balanced perspective of gender accuracy and validity. Robin McKinley's 1983 Newbery Award book, The Hero and the Crown, is one example of how the standard quest myths like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table can be reworked into more contemporary bu

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